GRIZZLY and BROWN BEARS, Ursus arctos 



(Aklak, Oglok) 



Range. — Mountainous rejrions of western North 

 America ; practically all of mainland Alaska, and 

 many of the islands. 



UabiMt. — Swamps, streams, forests, and tun- 

 dra; from sea level to snow fields above timberline. 



Forms in Alaska. — Much confusion has long ex- 

 isted in the nomenclature of the large Alaska bears, 

 and the relationships between the typical grizzly 

 bear {TJ . horribiUs), big brown bear (U. midden- 

 dor ffi), and the Old World brown bear (U. arctos) 

 are still far from clear. At least 76 species and 

 35 additional race-s of these American bears have 

 been proposed ; to present workers, this seems pre- 

 posterous. Locations of Alaska type localities are 

 indicated on the map, but for the present it seems 

 best to treat all these bears with dished-in facial 

 profiles and humped shoulders as one highly vari- 

 able and wide-ranging population which, accord- 

 ing to the rules of nomenclature, should be termed 

 Ursus arctos. The widely accepted "grizzly" and 

 "brown" bears are then properly considered forms 

 of U. arctos. Much work remains to be done before 

 the exact, status of these forms is clear. 



The principal forms which were named in the 

 past are, on the mainland, dalli (type locality: 



northwest side of Yakutat Bay), gyas (type local- 

 ity: Paulov Bay, Alaska Peninsula), horri- 

 bilis, kenaiensis (type locality: Cape Elizabeth, 

 extreme west end Kenai Peninsula), and 16 others 

 now regarded as synonyms. Typical island forms 

 include heringianus (St. Lawrence Island), elton- 

 clarki and sitkensis (Chichagof and Baranof 

 Islands), eulophus^ insuhris, fnirahilis, Tieglecfus, 

 and shira.si (Admiralty Island), middendorifi 

 (Kr>rlink Inland), nmrhph (Hinchinbrook Island), 

 and sheldoni (Montague Island). 



i&R 



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